If every hiker could donate at least one pair of nasty socks, we could save a lot of mountain goats. Of course we would need volunteers to string clothes lines in strategic places and hang the socks. We could give the program a catchy slogan like "Hang a sock, save a goat."

In all seriousness though, I thought that the noble creatures were natives at the time. The situation is kind of like the wild pigs that had to be eradicated from the Channel Islands. Sad.

Hi Sally, your thought that the goats you saw were native may be sound, and, worst case, is not far from the truth. Although the nps has publicized a claim that the goats are not native, that turns out to be a controversial claim, may be false and is beyond anyone's ability to verify with certainty. Even if they are not native, the nps preference for eradicating them from the peninsula with nets, helicopters and guns is also controversial from an ecological perspective.

I like your save the goats plan. They do too, I am sure.

And more than anything, you are so right: they are noble creatures. Under all of the nps plans, they face a future of great brutality. Very sad.